Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to devices and methods for measuring parameters associated with animal eye health and particularly devices aid methods for securing an animal's eye in position while obtaining objective measurements associated with eye health.
Description of Related Art
Eyes are a critical sensory organ for both humans and animals. Therefore, although eye diseases are typically not fatal, an eye disease or disorder that weakens vision or eventually results in loss of vision can significantly impair everyday life of a human or an animal.
Various types of devices diagnose eye health by projecting light into the eye of the patient. Such eye health, measurement devices obtain light measurements regarding distortion, reflection, retraction, wavefront changes and/or the like caused by components of the eye. These light measurements are used to determine the presence or absence of eye aberrations and the location of any eye aberrations. The effectiveness and accuracy of such devices are dependent upon proper positioning of the measurement device relative to the eye, and sometimes more specifically the cornea and/or the pupil, and misalignment of the measurement device results in inaccurate measurements and potentially a misdiagnosis.
Thus, the eye being examined must have a specific position relative to the measurement device, such as a specific distance from the device, a specific height relative to the device, and specific angles relative to the device in both the vertical and horizontal planes. In addition, the eye must maintain this position continuously as the device obtains the eye health measurements.
These requirements render eye health measurement devices unusable for most animals because animals typically will not “stay still,” i.e., maintain the same position for a time sufficient to measure the animal's eye. For example, even if an animal maintains its general body position for art amount of time, the animal will typically adjust the position of the head and thereby change the position of the eyes as the head moves.
Furthermore, for repeated examinations of an animal to produce measurements that can be compared, a consistent position of the animal's head and eyes in each examination is needed. Consistently positioning an animal relative to the measurement device is challenging, especially in view of the above-noted tendency of animals to frequently change their body position or at least their head position.
Moreover, the differences in facial structure between humans and animals also cause such eye health measurement devices to be difficult to use on animals. For example, many dogs have a nose that extends significantly farther than a human nose. As a result positioning the eye of the dog at the proper distance and angles relative to the measurement device can be problematic.
Therefore, there is a need for devices and methods for positioning one or more eyes of an animal by securing the animal's head and eyes in position while obtaining objective measurements associated with eye health.